Estimating Co2 Source/Sink Distributions Within A Rice Canopy Using Higher-Order Closure Model

Source/sink strengths and vertical fluxdistributions of carbon dioxide within and above arice canopy were modelled using measured meanconcentration profiles collected during aninternational rice experiment in Okayama, Japan (IREX96). The model utilizes an Eulerian higher-orderclosure approach that permits coupling of scalar andmomentum transport within vegetation to infer sourcesand sinks from mean scalar concentration profiles; theso-called `inverse problem'. To compute the requiredvelocity statistics, a Eulerian second-order closuremodel was considered. The model well reproducedmeasured first and second moment velocity statisticsinside the canopy. Using these modelled velocitystatistics, scalar fluxes within and above the canopywere computed and compared with CO2eddy-correlation measurements above the canopy. Goodagreement was obtained between model calculations offluxes at the top of the canopy and measurements. Close to the ground, the model predicted higherrespiratory fluxes when the paddy was drained comparedto when it was flooded. This is consistent with thefloodwater providing a barrier to diffusion ofCO2 from the soil to the atmosphere. TheEulerian sources and flux calculations were alsocompared to source and flux distributions estimatedindependently using a Lagrangian Localized Near Fieldtheory, the first study to make such a comparison.Some differences in source distributions werepredicted by these analyses. Despite this, thecalculated fluxes by the two approaches compared wellprovided a closure constant, accounting for theinfluence of `near-field' sources in the Eulerian fluxtransport term, was given a value of 1.5 instead ofthe value of 8 found in laboratory studies.